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The Twelve Habits of Smart Skill-Building

A code for the reskilling of you

Bala Shankar
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Human improvements have always been the backbone of inventions that advanced mankind. These were based on both knowledge and skills that we gained from time to time. Never before in the past decades has the topic of skills received as widespread attention and debate as now, with dominant opinion equating success with upskilling or reskilling – and failure with stagnant skillsets.
The concept of lifelong learning is challenging the old school maxim of frontloading all education. It is therefore intriguing to understand how people can take their core skills to new areas of work. What is the morphing mantra? How do people reshape their skillsets even when they are out of school? As knowledge and skill become increasingly crucial in the human versus machine competition, should we be analysing how we use old skills to do new tasks? And develop new skills with old abilities? What habit patterns helped successful people embrace skill-learning and build it as a second nature?

Published: Sep/2021

ISBN: 9789814954730

Length: 240 Pages

The Twelve Habits of Smart Skill-Building

A code for the reskilling of you

Bala Shankar

Human improvements have always been the backbone of inventions that advanced mankind. These were based on both knowledge and skills that we gained from time to time. Never before in the past decades has the topic of skills received as widespread attention and debate as now, with dominant opinion equating success with upskilling or reskilling – and failure with stagnant skillsets.
The concept of lifelong learning is challenging the old school maxim of frontloading all education. It is therefore intriguing to understand how people can take their core skills to new areas of work. What is the morphing mantra? How do people reshape their skillsets even when they are out of school? As knowledge and skill become increasingly crucial in the human versus machine competition, should we be analysing how we use old skills to do new tasks? And develop new skills with old abilities? What habit patterns helped successful people embrace skill-learning and build it as a second nature?

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Bala Shankar

Bala Shankar has experienced many different professions for sustained periods and in different geographies. He has had careers in corporate, teaching, entrepreneurship and writing. His own new pivots in life and career have prompted him to reflect on the skills journey and its impact.
Bala qualified as a management post-graduate (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, one of the premier management institutions in the world. He also obtained a Bachelors degree in Statistics. For over twenty five years, his corporate career spanned sales, account management, global account leadership and regional profit center responsibility at a global multinational in the fragrance and flavour business (current turnover of the company USD 2.5 billion) across Asia, the US and Europe. During his experience, he oversaw new market entry, geographical expansion, managed two large global accounts (Unilever, Johnson & Johnson), oversaw transition through a merger and private equity ownership and rolled out a global programme for sales growth.